Halflings are a transient people, who take great pleasure in food and drink, tall stories and a warm fire. They are short and, although they are naturally a slender race, their excesses often leave them portly. So, they generally consider a rotund appearance an attractive sign of success and good living. They also have tough, hairy feet, and few wear shoes. Their hair can be any color, as can their eyes. Halflings mature quickly and have a short life span. They are considered adult at 10, and the oldest recorded Halfling lived until 45. Given their shorter lifespan, Halflings are rather fertile (a trait often used to insult them) and often form strong family bonds, so most of them come from large families.

Halflings are all (as a race world-over) afflicted with an almost insane fascination with something or other. They are constantly intrigued with some aspect of the world to the point of obsession. On the whole, Halflings are a cheerful and curious lot, rarely without their noses in somebody else's business (or possibly their wallet). Halflings have little concern with all this 'society' nonsense; most find it quite amusing. For this reason, society places them (as a race) at the bottom of the lower class.

Special Abilities:

Fascination:Each Halfling must choose a reasonably broad subject that fascinates them. It could be anything from people to travel to clockwork, but is subject to Staff approval. This is not an academic interest, though. Halflings have little interest in learning dry lore; they want to experience what fascinates them. Those with a fascination for people spend all day watching them in the markets. Those who love travel never stop moving. Scattered watches they have taken apart and tried to repair will always surround a Halfling with a love of clockwork. This fascination can be as much of a benefit as it is a curse. Any time the player wishes his Halfling character to stop indulging in their particular fascination they must roll their Wits dice and score 2 successes unless someone else physically drags them away. However, given
their concentration on whatever fascinates them, the difficulty to notice something that involves what they are absorbed in (such as a new face at the market or a missing piece of clockwork) is lowered.

Fragile Physique:Due to their size, Halflings cannot ever enhance their Strength attribute in the same way some of the other races can. Regardless of their Rank and attribute cap, their Strength attribute can never be higher than 3.

Little Legs:Halflings are a short race and, as such, their legs are much shorter than those of the average Human (or Eldren or Beastman, for that matter). When calculating movement speeds, your scores are halved (but rounded up).

Sensitive Nose:Halflings are blessed with an excellent sense of smell and taste, which is probably why they love cooking so much (and living in the country rather than the city). All Halflings begin the game with the Talents 'Acute Sense (Smell)' and 'Acute Sense (Taste)' at no cost, which doesn’t count to their total amount of talents.

* Lifespan indicates natural span with access to medicine and correct diet. Urban Lower classes in industrial areas will be lucky to reach ½ this figure.